Tales on Film

First of all let me wish you all a happy 2012. As one of my New year resolutions, I decided that I will keep on posting interesting things about film photography, but I can’t keep up the rate I did last year until september. It’s just not possible to combine this blog on that intensity with all with my work and shooting. However I will not let the blog die. So to show that I’m still committed to posting, here is the first post for 2012.

A little while ago, I was playing around with the Diana F+ and got the idea to try and see if it’s possible to fire a pocketwizard (wireless flash trigger) with the Diana. After some testing and with the little hotshoe flash accessory that came with my Diana F+, it turned out to work. I loaded some film in the camera and went on to do some light tests.

Thanks to the internet I knew that the F+ has a diafragma of about f11 and that the shutter time varies between 1/100 and 1/60 of a second. That made that I had to put my studioflashes for those conditions, I used the old school method of a light meter and made sure I used the lower end of all settings. So I measured for f8 at 1/60 of a second on iso 400 because I was using Kodak Portra 400VC. It was an experiment, and boy was I happy when I saw the photos.

It even delivers some interesting results when you start using double exposures and flashes, just remember to adjust your settings.

So it’s perfectly possible to use a Diana F+ for studio photography. There are some catches however, first of all, the Diana F+ has no real focus, so that means unless you are using a lint meter your shots are going to be a bit soft like the photos above. The second problem is that because you are not working with a through the lens viewfinder and you don’t exactly see what you are framing and that means you’ll get some pictures like the one above, where the head is cut off. So it is possible to use a Diana F+ with off camera flash and there for in a studio environment, I would not recommend it

Mario Tama is a Getty Images photographer and was one of the photographers during the events of september 11, 2001 in New York. Now for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 he
decided to do a series about the 9/11 site today. To make it something different, he decided to use black and white film and a Lomo sprocket rocket camera. The photos are taken over the last couple of months and he will continue to shoot new images between now and the ceremonial event on september 11.

A small selection of his images can be see below.

All images in this post are fully copyrighted by Mario Tama

When we were at the Lomography store in June during the FPP-walk, the people there showed us a stop motion video they made with the LC-Wide, going from the store in Soho to the store in East-London. The film was made of 35 rolls of film, that’s a lot of work. But the result is quite nice. Enjoy.

Today Lomography released a new 35mm camera, La Sardina. This new Lomo camera has a wide angle lens and has the the possibility to make multiple exposures. Two of them are available with a new flash. According to Lomography it’s the most powerful flash they ever made.

Some specs (from the lomography site):

• Film Type: Standard 35mm (135)
• Exposure Area: 36mm x 24mm
• Lens Focal Length: 22mm
• Aperture: Fixed f/8
• Angle of view: 89 degrees
• Shutter Speed: Bulb (B), 1/100 (N)
• Closest Focusing Distance: 0.6m
• Focusing Steps: Two Step Focusing — 0.6m-1m, 1m-Infinity
• View Finder: Inverse Galileo-Type Built-in Viewfinder
• Film Counting: Auto Film Counting
• Film Stopping: Yes
• Multiple Exposures: Yes
• Cable Release Connection: Yes
• Tripod Mount: 1/4″ Tripod Screw
• Shutter Release Lock: Shutter Locks After Lens Collapsed
• Flash Contact: Unique La Sardina Micro Contact (for Fritz the Blitz flash only)

This camera is available in four different designs. You can find more information and sample photos about La Sardina at the minisite.

Although most of the cameras we have in our collection are old, vintage cameras that are already been used. But this camera, the Fisheye 2, is the only new camera in our collection. I bought this camera in a store in Ghent.

It’s being produced by Lomography, known from other cameras such as the Holga and the Diana cameras. Lomography is the only manufacturer of fixed fisheye lens cameras. The Fisheye2 camera has a fixed wide angle lens 10mm lens of 170°. The lens has a fixed focus and aperture of f/8. The shutter speed of this camera doesn’t leave you much choice. You can choose between the fixed speed of 1/100s or the bulb function.

The fisheye2 is an improved version of its previous model, the fisheye. The big difference between this fisheye2 and its previous edition, is that the 2nd version has a bulb function and a hotshoe. This hotshoe makes it possible to connect a (ring)flash to it. Because, if you use the on-camera flash you have to keep in mind that a part of your picture won’t be illuminated as you would expect it to be. The picture will only be half lit because the lens is a tiny bit in the way of the flash.

I like this camera because it’s a light weight camera and for its unique perspective and the no hassle operation.